Texas Wind Farm Underway.

Wind Energy Systems Technologies, a Lousiana, is entering into a 30 year lease of an 11,000 acre tract off the Texas Gulf Coast near Galveston amidst oil and gas platforms visible from beachers for a wind farm. It will pay $10,000 a year until it is up and running and then will pay the state a royalty.

Construction is expected to be completed within five years at a cost of about $300 million. W.E.S.T. plans to construct about 50 wind turbines, expected to produce 150 megawatts of electricity, enough to power about 40,000 homes.

Unlike the two other projects being considered for off shore wind farms, this one is not subject to Army Corps of Engineers approval since it is in a Texas controlled part of the coast. No serious delays are anticipated.

Two other offshore wind turbine farms have been proposed along the U.S. coast of the United States, one about four miles off the south shore of New York's Long Island, and one in Massachusetts' Nantucket Sound, off Cape Cod.

The New York project, backed by environmentalists, is still awaiting approval by the Army Corps of Engineers. The Nantucket project, also in federally controlled water, faces opposition because of fears it would ruin the ocean view from shore.

When complete, the Texas project will represent about 0.2% of the state's total electricity production.